Drago, Luis María (1859–1921)

Luis María Drago (b. 6 May 1859; d. 9 June 1921), Argentine jurist. A native of Buenos Aires, Drago was elected three times to the Chamber of Deputies and became one of Argentina's most eminent international jurists. In 1909, at the request of Britain and the United States, he arbitrated two major disputes between them; he also was a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice (1912–1916). His major contribution was in the context of American international law and another important doctrine, the Drago Doctrine, which was a narrowing of the Calvo Doctrine. This contribution, made while he was minister of foreign affairs, was in response to armed European intervention against Venezuela. In 1902, three European states (Britain, Germany, and Italy) imposed a naval blockade in order to force their financial claims resulting from default on bonds. On 29 December 1902 Drago sent an official note to the heads of the American governments stating that such use of force was contrary to international law: "The collection of loans by military means implies territorial occupation to make them effective [and it is] the suppression or subordination of the governments." His note received strong support in Latin America and at the Second Hague Conference (1907), where the United States had his doctrine modified.

See alsoDrago Doctrine .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Luis María Drago, "State Loans in Their Relation to International Policy," in American Journal of International Law 1, no. 3 (1907): 692-726, and Harold Eugene Davis, John J. Finan, and F. Taylor Peck, Latin American Diplomatic History: An Introduction (1977).

Additional Bibliography

Bra, Gerardo. La Doctrina Drago. Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina, 1990.

Consalvi, Simón Alberto. "Luis M. Drago, 1902: una doctrina que hizo historia." Boletín de la Academia Nacional de la Historia (Venezuela) 85 (July-December 2002): 69-78.

                                        Larman C. Wilson